Citation

Olmedo R, Nelson L, Chu J, Hoffman RS. Am. J. Emerg. Med. 2001; 19(7): 593-596.

Affiliation

Division of Toxicology, Department of Emergency Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, The Mount Sinai Medical Center, The Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, NY 10029-6574, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2001, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1053/ajem.2001.21720

PMID

11699007

Abstract

The current recommendations for body-packers are based on packet content, the presence of drug toxicity, or of bowel obstruction. Asymptomatic patients are usually treated with activated charcoal and whole bowel irrigation (WBI). Surgical removal of packets is advocated in symptomatic cocaine body-packers and in those with bowel obstruction. Currently, surgery is regarded as definitive. However, we report 2 body-packers who show the limitations of this technique. These cases show the importance of confirming the absence of drug packets in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract as the definitive end-point in the treatment of body-packers.

Language: en